The workers threw themselves into the job.
This time, they weren't mining. They were hauling rubble from deep inside the mine to its entrance.
Shuttling between the entrance and the pit, the workers soon piled rubble across the passage like ants building a nest, leaving only a narrow gap they could barely squeeze through.
Joan kept trying to contact Illymoyas, but got no response. She was probably far away.
Fortunately, they had bought plenty of food yesterday. By Joan's rough estimate, it would feed everyone for a week.
That was enough. Unless Illymoyas was attacked, the Oskulas Mercenary Company was captured, the Freemen were wiped out, Free City fell, and the world outside ended, they could hold out until reinforcements arrived.
While the workers toiled, the gang members weren't idle either. Joan taught them the rules and commands she had learned from the Hellfire Legion.
The Breathing Method was out of the question. She didn't know it herself, and there wasn't enough time. But she could at least teach them which command called for which action.
Deep in the dim mine, dust drifted everywhere amid shouted orders and moving figures.
Two officials from the Empire lifted a rock onto a cart together and used the moment to whisper.
"She's in danger. Aren't we going to intervene?"
"For an impostor?"
"But she is one of Annan Reeves's people."
If it had been anyone else, the two of them would already have secretly executed that person or taken them back to Montreal Mountain to build a Head-Mound. Annan was... different. If anyone found out they had stood by and let her die, their superiors might say nothing, but they would shun them from then on.
Who would offend a rising new lord over something that didn't concern them?
They quickly reached a